with Sebastian Merrill

In celebration of the release of Sebastian’s debut poetry collection, GHOST :: SEEDS, this workshop will feature time for community and connection, Sebastian reading poems from the book, an all-levels physical asana practice centered around the themes of self-love and acceptance, and a book signing at the end. Copies of GHOST :: SEEDS will be available for purchase. Sebastian’s teaching is gender affirming, body positive, and consent oriented. All bodies, sizes, and abilities are welcome and celebrated.

About the book: Set on a remote island on the Maine coast, GHOST :: SEEDS incorporates elements of magical realism and myth to explore and trouble conceptions of gender and identity. The central tension is a dialogue between a transmasculine speaker and a figure that he conceptualizes as his ghost, the girl-ghost of the self that he left behind to become the person he is today. Putting a queer spin on the myth of Persephone, the girl-ghost speaks from an underworld lit by glowworms, cut through by dark rivers, and connected to the world above through a sea cave. The ocean serves as a throughline connecting the speaker and his lost self, providing a setting in which everything is continually in flux: the cycle of the tides, the pounding surf against the rocky coast, and the ever-present threat of pollution and climate change. Kayaking through a coastline studded with islands, alongside seals, porpoises, and herons, amid swirls of floating plastic, we are invited into a world in which the only constant is change.